Friday, September 25, 2009

Douglas W Jacobson is an engineer, business owner, and World War Two history enthusiast who has traveled extensivley in Europe. Night of Flames was inspired by the war-time experiences of his Belgian relatives and his own Polish heritage. Doug and his wife, Janie, live in Elm Grove, WI.

Mr. Jacobson has a website where he has posted stories of some of the real heroes fictionalized in "Night of Flames." One that really piqued my interest was Andree Dumon. Mr. Jacobson wrote of Ms. Dumon:Andree Dumon (code name, "Nadine")was recruited at age seventeen by a local school teacher into Belgium's covert escape line for Allied aviators. We met for a luncheon along with another of her fellow agents from the war years, Denise Claycomb, and Comete Kinship Belgium at Maison des Ailes (the House of Wings)in Brussels. Operating out of her parents' home in Brussels from 1941-43, Nadine escorted more than twenty Allied airman shot down over Belgium to a safehouse in Paris. Traveling by trains at night she would lead the aviators, all of them older and a lot taller than she was, through checkpoints, advising them to keep quiet whenever German soldiers demanded to see their falsified identification cards. In Paris she would hand them over to another agent, known to her only by a number or codename. This agent would in turn lead them on another route and the clandestine action was repeated over and over until the aviator was safely across the Pyrenees mountains into Spain and on his way to safety in England. Eventually, like most agents of the Comet Line, Nadine's luck ran out and she was arrested by the Gestapo along with her mother and father. During more than two years in three different German concentration camps, suffering from typhus, Nadine managed to survive until liberation by Allied armies in 1945.

4 comments:

Hello:) this is most interesting- and I read your wonderful review (below) as well. Sounds fascinating. My dad was part of the resistance movement in Italy (that's right- not all of Italy was fascist). He was a Partisan and he now holds the highest medal of honour for fighting the fascists and nazis. These war stories are heart-wrenching, but fascinating. Thanks:)

Ms. Lucy,All of these resistance fighters were true heroes, putting their lives at risk. In reference to your Dad with the resistance in Italy, have you read the "A Thread of Grace"? Its a wonderful and well written book about Italian resistance fighters.Doug Jacobson,Author,NIGHT OF FLAMES

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